Harwinton's Plan To Buy Snet Tract Hits A Snag

HARWINTON — A town proposal to buy a Southern New England Telephone-owned communications tower on Wildcat Hill Road has been toppled, at least for now.

More than 5 acres and a communications tower owned by SNET that town officials believe would be ideal for a communications tower and fire station are apparently not for sale.

SNET spokesperson Myra Simmons said Tuesday that there have been initial talks with the town about the 5.3-acre parcel but that neither the tower nor any of the land is on the block.

``There have been some discussions,'' Simmons said. ``But they're only in the preliminary stages.'' She said SNET has not made a decision to sell any of the land to the town yet.

An 80-foot tower on the site would serve nicely as a communications transmitter for emergency personnel because it is 1,100 feet above sea level, at the town's highest point, said Lincoln Taylor, chief of the town's West Side Fire Department and town civil defense director.

The tower was once a microwave relay operation but is no longer operating, Taylor said.

In the more distant future, the land, valued at $200,000, could also serve as a site for a new fire station. Taylor said the 40-year-old Scoville Hill Road fire station is small.

First Selectwoman Marie Knudsen said Taylor approached the board of selectmen on May 20 seeking approval to investigate whether SNET would sell the land, the tower or both.

Taylor says purchasing the SNET tower would be advantageous. The west side station has a 120-foot tower. But at only 1,000 feet above sea level, that tower site is less desirable than the higher-altitude one on Wildcat Hill Road.

The hilly terrain of northwestern Connecticut means the area needs more towers for effective communication, he said.

``Radio signals don't penetrate hills,'' Taylor said. But at the same time ``people don't want a proliferation of towers all over the place.''

A future fire station on Wildcat Hill Road could also provide more bays for fire engines and more room in the station. The 3,200-square foot Scoville Hill Road station has 30- foot bays. The department's firetrucks are 28 feet long.

``You put the truck in there and you can't walk around,'' Taylor said. He said that the station is in a heavily residential area, and that an addition to it might be opposed.

Ideally, Taylor said, he would like to see a 15,000-square-foot station, with five or six bays.

Taylor said that even if SNET does offer the land for sale, he expects it would be a while before the town would purchase it.